Essence Devouring Art

”I’ll give you half a month.”

Wu Dao looked down indifferently at the one-armed elf who was about to be completely swallowed by the darkness. ”Two paths. One, devour them all. Two, the old rules.”

”Hee hee hee~”

This time, Yaya was no longer silent with despair.

Her smile was like a blossoming flower, her voice like silver bells.

Her crimson eyes, glowing with a morbid red light, faintly illuminated the darkness. In a soft, sweet voice, she said, ”Yaya likes this very much. Truly... I’m loving Daddy more and more.”

RUMBLE—

The Nine-Layered Beast Tower was fully formed.

The violent, savage roars of beasts echoed through the abyss as darkness completely submerged the small figure.

”Daddy loves you too.”

Wu Dao grinned and withdrew his gaze.

He sat impassively amidst the wind and snow, listening to the beautiful symphony of snarls, roars, and the sounds of primitive, savage combat, before sinking back into silence.

The Saint King had been a fat, free-range sheep.

Harvesting him had yielded quite a sweet reward.

This only strengthened the idea in his mind.

If he could get such a great return by simply letting things grow wild, what if he were to actively invest and guide them?

Wouldn’t the profits be astronomical?

The risks were a bit greater, sure.

But the greater the risk, the fatter the meat.

He greatly looked forward to the day Yaya would return to him, covered in plump, delicious flesh.

Just thinking about it made his mouth water.

While Clone Number Two was teaching Yaya her second lesson, Wu Dao’s Clone Number One had already returned to the Overlord Whale Alliance headquarters, where he had not been seen for a long time.

...

WHOOSH~

The snowy wind howled under a sky of endless dark clouds.

Guangqing Prefecture.

Lancang County City.

In the deepest part of the frozen Lancang River.

The pressure was immense, the cold extreme.

A dark, powerfully built figure stood on the riverbed, wearing heavy armor forged from Spirit Iron. His bones and flesh creaked under the strain as his fists and kicks stirred the currents, tempering his physique at the very limits of endurance.

After completing a set of his fist technique...

ROAR—

The dark-skinned man’s physique glowed with incandescent heat, like a roaring furnace or a dragon’s nest in operation.

The moment his qi and blood surged, the vast, ancient cries of dragons could be heard.

A single step cracked the riverbed beneath him. Like an undersea volcano erupting, the force melted earth and stone into magma, sending billows of white steam rising from the river’s surface.

The Horizontal Refining Fourth Gate!

Qi and Blood like a Dragon!

GURGLE~

He exhaled a breath of turbid fire.

Zhao Jianji slowly withdrew his technique. His rugged, imposing face showed no joy, but rather a hint of sorrow.

The Horizontal Refining Fourth Gate.

It was indeed powerful.

With the blessing of the Primordial Magnetic Demon Embryo, Zhao Jianji now dared to clash head-on with even a first-level Celestial Being.

But this was as far as he could go.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t working hard enough.

It was that the world’s environment no longer allowed it.

Ever since the great fissures had split the skies of every land, the Great Dao’s suppression of the Extraordinary had reached an almost perverse level.

Below the Ninth Transformation, all paths were severed.

The way forward was like an impassable chasm.

No matter how hard one tried, it was impossible to take another step.

A month ago, using his authority as the second-in-command of the Overlord Whale Alliance and a massive supply of resources, Zhao Jianji had once again broken the shackles of his Innate Dantian and stepped into the Horizontal Refining Fourth Gate.

But a month later, despite his ceaseless, arduous cultivation every day, he was still stuck in the same place, even showing faint signs of regressing.

Zhao Jianji knew in his heart that without some great stroke of fortune, he would be stuck at the Fourth Gate for the rest of his life.

Was he resigned to it?

Of course not!

If he had never seen the light, he could have endured any darkness, no matter how deep.

Without a Dantian, he would have remained at the Divine Power realm his entire life.

Wu Dao had given him a chance at a new life.

He had been freed from the shackles imposed by the heavens.

Step by step, he had reached a realm he once never dared to even dream of.

But...

Before his great ambitions could be realized, a rude awakening from the heavens had ruthlessly extinguished all of Zhao Jianji’s aspirations, plunging him back into darkness once more.

’Damn you, thieving heavens!’

Zhao Jianji cursed silently. Just as he was about to continue his tempering, a domineering voice he longed to hear day and night echoed in his mind—

”Stop your winter swimming. See me at headquarters.”

’Alliance Leader, this subordinate isn’t winter swimming, I’m cultivating...’

Although he was overjoyed to hear from Wu Dao again, Zhao Jianji still felt the slight hurt of a diligent child whose parents mistakenly think they’re just fooling around.

”Nonsense. You call that cultivating? Get your ass back here now!”

Wu Dao chided coldly.

Then he cut the connection.

’This subordinate really isn’t winter swimming...’

Zhao Jianji cried out helplessly in his heart.

Heaven and earth be my witness. Down here, at the bottom of the Lancang River, even a Land Immortal couldn’t last without a Gang Shield, let alone him, wearing Spirit Armor Heavy Armor.

Every moment felt like he was exercising with a mountain on his back. He was already pushing himself to the brink of death.

However, thinking of the Alliance Leader’s monstrous reputation, Zhao Jianji felt relieved. Perhaps what he considered his limit was truly just child’s play in the Alliance Leader’s eyes.

...

When Zhao Jianji rushed to the headquarters, he was somewhat surprised to find that all of the Overlord Whale Alliance’s nearly one hundred Primordial Demons—from the Innate realm up to the Fifth Gate—were gathered in the great hall.

A single glance revealed each one was as burly and ferocious as a tyrannosaurus.

They stood silently in the hall, their Supreme Yang auras creating surging heat waves that distorted the very air into a dark red, like an Asura Iron Army that had crawled out of Hell.

Upon the Alliance Leader’s throne at the far end of the hall, Wu Dao, like a Demon God shrouded in shadow, indifferently opened his eyes. His gaze, deeper than darkness itself, sent a shiver down Zhao Jianji’s spine, who immediately prostrated himself.

”Your subordinate, Zhao Jianji, pays his respects to the Alliance Leader! May the Alliance Leader live for a thousand autumns and ten thousand generations—”

”Enough!”

Wu Dao waved his hand, his expression indifferent, his voice domineering and cold. ”I have summoned you all today for one reason only!”

Hearing that Wu Dao was finally going to make use of them, the nearly one hundred Primordial Demons, including Zhao Jianji, immediately flushed, dropped to one knee, their eyes blazing with fervor, and roared loud enough to shake the heavens:

””Through mountains of blades and seas of fire, we would not shy from ten thousand deaths!””

Absolute loyalty!

For every Primordial Demon, the meaning of life was to offer themselves to the Father God!

Even if they were ordered to die on the spot, as long as it pleased the Father God, it would be the highest honor.

”Good. Very spirited!”

Wu Dao, like a Purgatory Demon God reviewing his troops, smiled with satisfaction before speaking gravely.

”Death is indeed a possibility. But if you do not die, you will all have the chance to become dragons soaring through the Nine Heavens!”

””Even if it means certain death, we have no regrets!””

Another uniform, fanatical roar nearly blew the roof off the great hall.

”Silence!”

Wu Dao pressed a hand down, signaling for quiet.

Once the Primordial Demons had calmed down, he wasted no more words.

His Heaven-Supporting Physique trembled.

Flesh and blood writhed and separated.

Nearly a hundred star-colored Primordial Magnetic Demon Embryo 4.0s, pulsing like hearts, grew dancing tentacles that landed precisely on the heart of each Primordial Demon.

A new round of upgrades began.

After this upgrade, the Primordial Demons’ upper limits, regardless of their aptitude, would become the ordinary Absolute Peak: Horizontal Refining Ninth Gate Great Success.

Besides the upgrade, Wu Dao’s vast Spiritual Consciousness also sealed and transferred all of his Cultivation outside of the Essence Devouring Main Path to the Primordial Demons.

Of course, his Three-Phase Divine Punishment Fist—an Abnormal Boxing Technique with three stances per punch, refined in the Mud Hell Sea—was useless to pass on. It would only become a weakened version of the Thunder Punishment Dominating Whale Fist.

Then there was the Five Great Holy Spirits Horizontal Refining Method.

He also taught this by tailoring it to the different Physiques of the Primordial Demons, passing down the appropriate parts to each.

As for the complete Holy Spirit Technique, he hadn’t even finished integrating and developing it himself.

Practicing an incomplete version could easily lead to problems.

Finally, there was Reversed Celestial Spirit.

This Great All Heavens Divine Technique, given to him by the old monster, Wu Dao also sealed and passed on to the Primordial Demons.

As for why he didn’t pass on the more advanced Immune to All Laws, it was because that involved his Main Path.

Without walking the Primordial Magnetic Dao, they couldn’t learn it even if he taught them.

While imparting these various Cultivation Techniques, Wu Dao also unreservedly passed on all the information about the old monster’s contingencies and treasures located in the Hongyuan Great World to the Primordial Demons.

If they could find those contingencies and treasures, becoming dragons soaring through the Nine Heavens wouldn’t just be an empty promise.

Every Primordial Demon would have the chance to become a major power in their own right.

Of course, the prerequisite was that they could grow up safely.

That’s right.

Wu Dao was laying his plans for Hongyuan in advance.

After the Mud Hell Sea, the old monster had told him of a path to self-rescue.

It was called self-rescue, but it was actually a huge trap.

The specific method of implementation was that when the Great Tribulation fully descended and the Dragon Mud Cave Heaven connected with the Divine Wilderness, he was to use a hidden passage created by the spatiotemporal collision of the two worlds to send a batch of ”sparks”—those below the level of Divine Techniques—to a safe place in Hongyuan.

Why was it limited to those below the Divine Technique realm?

Because the primary Tribulation Experiencers of this Great Tribulation were those in the Divine Power Domain.

Under the Great Dao’s lockdown, before the Tribulation fell, no Divine Ability User could escape the cage by any means!

And the reason it was a huge trap was because the self-rescue method the old monster provided had too many restrictions.

One, he needed to survive the Great Tribulation.

Two, the ”sparks” he sent out needed to grow strong!

Three, they would have to find the exiled Divine Wilderness World within the temporal turbulence outside Hongyuan and use the method taught by the old monster to drill a hole in the cage’s wall to rescue Wu Dao.

Setting aside the matter of surviving the Great Tribulation, the latter two conditions both essentially meant climbing further onto the old monster’s pirate ship, binding the two of them completely together.

Therefore, Wu Dao had no intention of relying on this method to escape the Divine Wilderness cage.

He was sending the Primordial Demons out of Divine Wilderness merely to place a chess piece in Hongyuan ahead of time.

Just like the Little Mudman in Dragon Gate Town.

Failure didn’t matter.

But success would be a massive profit on zero investment.

The heights the old monster reached in his life were absolutely unimaginable by current standards.

The contingencies and treasures he left behind were enough to make any power fight to the death for them, and sufficient to cultivate the Primordial Demons to a very high realm.

By taking advantage of the time difference between the two worlds, perhaps by the time he truly descended upon Hongyuan, the Primordial Demons would have already grown strong enough to stand on their own. The benefits were self-evident.

BUZZ~

As his thoughts swirled, the modification and upgrade of the Primordial Demons was complete.

Cultivation Techniques and memories were all transferred.

At the same time, Wu Dao deepened the level of ’Pollution Brainwashing’.

He linked the Primordial Demons’ Life Magnetic Field completely to the Magnetic Field of the Primordial Magnetic Demon Embryos. They would prosper together and fall together, eliminating any possibility of rebellion at its root.

””We thank the Alliance Leader for this gift of creation! We shall shed our blood and give our lives to complete the tasks you have entrusted to us!””

After they came to their senses, the Primordial Demons were all in tears, kneeling on both knees and kowtowing in gratitude.

In that brief moment, the fortune Wu Dao had bestowed upon them was no less than giving them a new Reincarnation. Their futures were now limitless!

At the same time, they also understood their future mission. Their eyes were filled with ambition, without a trace of fear or cowardice.

”What I am about to say, carve it into your hearts!”

Wu Dao spoke gravely once more, carving his commands deep into the souls of the Primordial Demons—

”First, after arriving in Hongyuan, hide your true selves. Do not expose your origins, and do not take the initiative to participate in conflicts.”

”Second, act within your capabilities. If a ’treasure’ is unattainable, do not hesitate. Abandon it immediately.”

”Third, if you encounter others who also cultivate the Thunder Punishment Dominating Whale Fist and they bear no ill will, you may accept them and offer them aid, provided it does not violate the first rule.”

”Fourth, I officially appoint Zhao Jianji, who has managed the Overlord Whale Alliance without a single mistake, as the acting Alliance Leader.”

”Fifth...”

Various precautions, future development directions, growth plans, the Primordial Demons’ internal organizational structure... no detail was too small.

Wu Dao arranged everything, and the Primordial Demons etched it all into their very bones.

Of course, there was one last, most important point.

Wu Dao erased all information about Divine Wilderness from the Primordial Demons’ memories, including his own existence.

He only left a back door via Magnetic Field induction.

With this back door in place, the Primordial Demons would still loyally carry out their mission.

And the moment they came into contact with Wu Dao’s Magnetic Field, Wu Dao would be their supreme, absolute authority, whom they would obey unconditionally.

After all matters were concluded, Wu Dao waved his hand, and wrapping up the nearly one hundred Primordial Demons in the hall, he silently vanished into the void, leaving Guangqing Prefecture and heading toward the Outer Sea.

There were still three months before that passage would appear.

Within this time, he was going to put the Primordial Demons through hellish training.

He would use a grand Magnetic Field array to gather Energy and temper them with thunder and lightning, bypassing the restrictions to forcibly raise the Primordial Demons’ Transverse Cultivation level and enhance their chances of survival after entering the Hongyuan Great World!